In 2006, Hallmark produced and sold a greetings card in the UK which featured a picture of Bevan and the legend: "When the screen went back, he was to always regret the words . . . ‘I’ll go for number three, Cilla.’”

Dr Wouter de Herder, a Dutch endocrinologist who was on holiday in England, recognised the photograph and complained to Hallmark. According to theis article, he said: "“I immediately recognised the photo as I had just written an article about Mary Ann Bevan... She was in several [freak] shows in England and then later in the United States, but she led a miserable, painful life. I simply don’t think its right in 2006 to use her image to create a sick birthday card. I feel that this card is insulting to all patients who suffer from the same condition.”

Ironically, his words in fact echoed those of the famous neurosurgeon Harvey Cushing eighty years earlier, who attempted to treat Mary Ann Bevan towards the end of her life. He wrote to Time magazine in 1927, complaining of the way it had made fun of Bevan: “This unfortunate woman who sits in the sideshow of Ringling Brothers [...] has a story which is far from mirth-provoking,” wrote Dr Cushing.“She, previously a vigorous and good looking young woman, has become the victim of a disease known as acromegaly . . . Being a physician, I do not like to feel that Time can be frivolous over the tragedies of disease.” Bevan died just six years later.

I've written before about the difficulties facing women with acromegaly, but I think this story really hammers the message home. In eighty years, it seems that although our ability to treat this debilitating disease has improved greatly, our attitudes to its sufferers have hardly changed.

Makes me cry. I have Cushing's. I know what is like to have your beautiful body and face deform into something unbearable to see. The world can be so cruel. I have enormous amounts of pain and physical limitations because of Cushing's but people, even my own relatives who don't understand just think I'm a fat person who lost interest in caring for myself.

About Me

I am a 23-year old girl who was diagnosed with a TSHoma (pituitary adenoma secreting thyroid-stimulating hormone, also known as a thyrotropinoma) in December 2010. This excitingly rare brain tumour appears to have been the culmination of all my childhood attempts to be "special".

As well as neoplasia, my cells enjoy mitosis, catabolism, and badminton.